'If you're married in Massachusetts and you move someplace else, you're still married': Obama pushes for gay marriage to be legalised across US as it is still banned in 35 STATES despite landmark ruling

President Barack Obama said today recognition of gay unions in
the United States should cross state lines.

He praised the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage as a 'victory for American democracy,' - but there are still 35 states where same-sex marriage is banned.

'It's my personal belief -- and I'm speaking now as a president [not] as a lawyer -- if you're married in Massachusetts and you move someplace else, you're still married,' he said at a press conference with his Senegalese counterpart, in Dakar, Senegal.

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Announcement: 'If you're married in Massachusetts and you move someplace else, you're still married,' said President Obama today

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'It's important that people who deserve these benefits, that they're getting them quickly.'

But he explained the ruling did not mean that same-sex marriages were permitted nationwide.

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'The Supreme Court did not make a blanket ruling that applies nationally, but rather lifted up the ability of states to recognize and respect same-sex marriage, and that the federal government couldn't negate the decision by those states,' Obama said, reported CNN.

On Wednesday the justices struck the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), that denied federal benefits to same-sex married couples.

The ruling applies to the 12 states, plus the District of Columbia, where same-sex marriages are legal.

Another ruling, Proposition 8 case, affected only that California, where gay marriages can soon resume.

Different view: Today Obama visited Senegal, a country that outlaws homosexuality. Senegalese President Macky Sall, at his side, responded that while his country is tolerant, 'We are still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality.'

Today Obama visited Senegal, a country that outlaws homosexuality.

While acknowledging differing cultural and religious views, he said he also wanted to stress the importance of nondiscrimination under the law.

'People should be treated equally and that's a principal that I think applies universally,' he said in a news conference in Dakar. Senegalese President Macky Sall, at his side, responded that while his country is tolerant, 'We are still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality.'

Obama has carefully staked out his position on same-sex marriage throughout his political career. In a questionnaire from a gay newspaper in Chicago during his 1996 Illinois Senate race, he replied, 'I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.'

Two years later, he declared himself undecided.

On the call: The White House released this picture of President Obama calling Edie Windsor from Air Force One

By 2004, as he ran for the U.S. Senate, he said he opposed gay marriage for politically strategic reasons, saying Republicans would exploit the issue, and he advocated instead for gay civil unions. In his 2006 book 'The Audacity of Hope,' he cited his own faith as a reason to oppose same-sex marriage, though he also wrote, 'I must admit that I may have been infected with society's prejudices and predilections and attributed them to God.'

Despite initial apprehensions, many gay rights advocates now hail him as a hero.

Even before he announced his support for gay marriage in May of last year, gay donors were pumping several million dollars into Obama's campaign fund as he ran for re-election.

He already had signed hate crimes legislation that made it a federal crime to assault someone because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity, had signed a repeal of the 'don't ask don't tell' military policy and had instructed the Justice Department to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act.

Jubilant: San Franciscans celebrate marriage equality after the Supreme Court rulings struck down Prop 8 and DOMA in the Castro in San Francisco

Rejoice: Supporters are seen at the Gay Marriage Rally in New York City

Joyous: Debbie Lohmeyer (right) and Tricia McMahon rallied with community members and local leaders in Terry Schrunk Plaza to celebrate the Supreme Court's decision concerning the Defense of Marriage Act

'In terms of American society, he has truly brought us out of the closet,' said Fred Sainz of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights group.

'He has lived up to his claim of being a tireless advocate on behalf of our community.'

Advocates would still like the government in general and Obama in particular to do more. They are pushing the Senate to pass an employment nondiscrimination law that would protect workers from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Short of that, they want Obama to impose that requirement on federal contractors, a step Obama so far has resisted.

'We have our skirmishes with the administration certainly on some issues,' Sainz said. Of Obama not signing an executive order on federal contractors, he said, 'It's a head-scratcher to us.'

The court's decision showcased more than just Obama's evolving views.

President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.

On Wednesday, he and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, issued a joint statement: 'By overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, the court recognized that discrimination towards any group holds us all back in our efforts to form a more perfect union.'